Tuesday, January 26, 2010

What a great idea from Shelley at Twigs of Yore to post family events that occured on 26th January on her blog. Carole Riley of Carole's Canvas followed up with a similar post. Whilst Shelley had two 26 January events Carole had five from the 17th to the 21st centuries. I felt that I just had to join this Australia Day blogging event.

None of my direct ancestors figure in the list produced. The closest is for my great-grandmother's brother, Michael Kealy who, on 26 Jan 1867, left his native Ireland on the Light Brigade and arriving on 21 May 1867 to start a new life in Australia with his brother. My great-grandmother, Mary Kealy, followed her brothers to Australia in 1877.

Conditions in Australia must have been agreeable for Michael as he fathered a family of 13 in Australia .

My ancestors who made the journey from The British Isles to the great southern land in the 19th century probably dreamed, like Dorothea Mackellar, of "field and coppice". We, their ancestors, rejoice in our life in "the sunburnt country" and thank those ancestors for making a treacherous journey by sea to the "wide brown land". We love "the lucky country".

Adrian Nesbitt revisits his former family home to trace and connect with a dark past. I wonder if Adrian's ancestors knew my convict ancestor, Patrick Curry, who lived in the same area at the same time.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

This diagram from The Perennial Lone Wolf Librarian's Weblog started me thinking about how the development of the internet, email and web 2.0 applications has changed genealogy from a rather lonely pursuit to a collaborative activity.

When I started out in the late 1980's I spoke to people in the family to gather the data that was in their heads then I headed off to libraries to search printed resources,microfiche and microfilms. I also made contact with a few people I found in Pioneer registers from various areas in Australia. Some of these people responded by post and sent photocopies of certificates and handwritten trees. Most of the information in these handwritten trees was not sourced; verifying sources meant trips to libraries and genealogical societies and much searching of indexes on microfiche, visits to cemeteries etc.

I embraced technology in the late 1980's when I started entering my data into a basic database. I was then able to share printed reports with new found cousins but I needed to go to the library (luckily I worked in one) to make photocopies of certificates as I did not have access to scanners and copiers at home.

Fast Forward twenty years to today and, thanks to advances in technology, I have a smorgasbord of tools with which to communicate and a broad range of virtual genealogy friends with whom I can share information, news and tips and discuss the trials and tribulations of ancestor hunting.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Betty Sparnon grew up in Balmain and writes “we often played in the old air raid shelter near Unilever and I recently met another child of Balmain who remembers an air raid shelter under a factory opposite the Dry Dock Hotel. How can we find out more about these shelters?”

We searched our collection but haven’t uncovered anything that would assist Betty. If you have any information on air raid shelters around Balmain, contact us at localhistory@lmc.nsw.gov.au and we will pass this information on to Betty.